Strange how only a few years can change so much about how you interact with the world. I thought it was especially interesting in Shirky’s talk about how China has changed its interaction. During the Sichuan earthquake last year, there was a massive explosion of this mass conversation. It was nearly uncontrollable until the government had to clamp down because of so many images, stories, videos blaming corrupt officials for the collapse of the schools. Whereas during the last major earthquake, the government refused to admit that one had occurred for nearly three months!